1977 Blackout NYC & Westchester County

[TR54 239]

An event I will not forget. I recall where I was when the power went out on July 13,1977 !

New York City blackout of 1977

The New York City Blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The only neighborhoods in New York City that were not affected were the Southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways, which are part of the Long Island Lighting Company System.

Unlike other blackouts that affected the region, namely the Northeast Blackout of 1965 and the Northeast Blackout of 2003, the 1977 blackout was localized to New York City and the immediate surroundings. Also in contrast to the 1965 and 2003 blackouts, the 1977 blackout resulted in city-wide looting and other disorder, including arson.[1]

The events leading up to the blackout began at 8:37 p.m. EDT on July 13 with a lightning strike at Buchanan South, a substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers in Westchester County. The Buchanan South substation converted the 345,000 volts of electricity from Indian Point to lower voltage for commercial use. A loose locking nut combined with a tardy upgrade cycle ensured that the breaker was not able to reclose and allow power to flow again.

A second lightning strike caused the loss of two 345 kV transmission lines, subsequent reclose of only one of the lines, and the loss of power from a 900MW nuclear plant at Indian Point. As a result of the strikes, two other major transmission lines became loaded over their normal limits. Per procedure, Con Edison, the power provider for New York City and some of Westchester County, tried to start fast-start generation at 8:45 p.m. EDT; however, no one was manning the station, and the remote

[gamewell45 258]

An event I will not forget. I recall where I was when the power went out on July 13,1977 !

We were in the process of backing engine 90 into Hays Hose Company quarters when the lights went out; the fire horn blew once and lights went out simultaneously. Someone went and started up the generator and we ended up being on that until early the next morning.

[Remember585 815]

We were in the process of backing engine 90 into Hays Hose Company quarters when the lights went out; the fire horn blew once and lights went out simultaneously. Someone went and started up the generator and we ended up being on that until early the next morning.

You had a generator in your firehouse in 1977? We still don't have one!!!! :angry:

I wasn't around for the 1977 blackout but I remember the 2003 one. My sister was vacuuming out her car in the back of the house, when all of a sudden everything went out. My first thought was that she tripped a breaker, so I looked and they were all on. Her car radio mentioned a blackout in the whole north east, so I figured I should go to the firehouse. After a while, we found out our PD HQ was having issues with their generator (which again was a no-show this winter) so I got stuck manning our base. We went on a bunch of calls due to the outage and restoration of power.

Hopefully that doesn't happen again any time soon...

[ajsbear 11]

I remember that night. We (Ladder 2) went to MT Vernon Hospital as their generator failed. We were supplying power using the truck for lights in the building. We had power cords running up the outside of the building. The FD motor mechanic was brought in and after several hours got their generator running so we were able to go back in service. A short time later we went to a multi alarm fire started by candles at a large house on 3rd street about 1 block from the Hutch Parkway.

[x2011 0]

I remember that night very well. I was the Shift Supervisor at the Indian Point Unit 3 nuclear plant. It was my last 4 to 12 shift, my first 12 to 8 shift and my first 8 to 4 shift. People couldn't get to the plant. The roads were a mess.

[BFD1054 1,552]

I wasnt around for this either (born in 82' lol), but my father worked for Con Ed for 44 years, retiring a few years ago. When this occured, my family lived on 1st St and had a perfect view of the Substation. My father also worked out of Buchanan at the time. He said it was chaos and that many people believed that there was a Nuclear emergency and actually were trying to race out of town. My father knew what it was and told my mother to relax as he went to work.

Many of our guys in the Firehouse also tell stories of the Blackout and being at the Substation throughout the night. Theres actually an old newspaper article about it in our Firehouse. Ill see if i can copy it and post it here to share.

[gamewell45 258]

You had a generator in your firehouse in 1977? We still don't have one!!!! :angry:

It was an old Onan gasoline powered 5k(?) generator. You couldn't use too many electrical appliances otherwise it would overload the electrical system, but it was better then nothing.

[nfd2004 750]

The Blackout lasted for about 24 hours. After it was over, I took a ride down to Brooklyn. From the Williamsburg Bridge, I traveled down Broadway. There were still many places with an FDNY Engine and Ladder on the scene. The FDNY had probadly it's busiest night in History. This was during their Busy War Years but the night/day of July 13/14, 1977 they fought probadly ten times their number of building fires. Again, this was a most historic timefor fires without any Blackout.

Broadway was a diseaster. Blocks and Blocks of burned out stores. Sissor Gates pulled right off of buildings, then looted, then set on fire. Streets were covered with spoiled food, broken whiskey bottles, and pieces of charred wood.

I just couldn't believe it. Next day the FDNY just went back to its routine job. Fighting the fires of the War Years.

[Stepjam 118]

I was up on the roof of my apartment building on Highland Avenue in Yonkers, looking north up the river and watching a very colorful, violent electrical storm up that way. It wasn't raining, but it was hot as hell and extremely humid. One of the few times I've actually seen "ball" lightning.

Then the lights just winked out.

[GAW6 66]

We were in the process of backing engine 90 into Hays Hose Company quarters

Probably coming back from Thornwood's Annual Parade and Carnival, I am guessing?????

[dadbo46 50]

I remember that night. We (Ladder 2) went to MT Vernon Hospital as their generator failed. We were supplying power using the truck for lights in the building. We had power cords running up the outside of the building. The FD motor mechanic was brought in and after several hours got their generator running so we were able to go back in service. A short time later we went to a multi alarm fire started by candles at a large house on 3rd street about 1 block from the Hutch Parkway.

.....and I was sleeping in a hose bed at 4 & 2 !

[hudson144 150]

I was 17 at the time and myself and a bunch of friends were hanging out in front of a friends house that was approx as the crow flys about a 1/2 mile away. The sky lit up as bright as day, almost like a scene from Orson wells "War Of the Worlds'. The sound was so loud of electrical arcing that it was almost deafening. We as teenagers thought it was pretty cool however in a short period of time we all weren't sure what the hell was going on.Fire departments were responding to Indian Point and again we all didn't know what to do. I remember walking back along route 9A in Buchanan into Montrose and the traffic was crazy. In front of the Montrose Firehouse we saw cars flying through the intersection at high rates of speed. Some of the guys knew that it was the transformers that weren't even within the nuke side of the plant so it was comical to them to see the reaction of others.I felt at ease from speaking to my father about what was going on. He explained to me about what they thought had happened. He put many years in at IP working as a steamfitter so I felt comfortable about not evacuating. It was along night waiting to see what was going to happen. We were cutoff from the outside world because of the outage. As the sun came up it was an eerie feeling and also a relieved feeling that we were not glowing lol. In the news the following days people reported that they evacuated with their familys and ended up miles away with no memory of how they got there. Panic was certainly in the air. An interesting night in the Tri-Village area.